Linda Evangelista has revealed she still needs therapy to ‘see what she looks like in the mirror’ after she revealed in 2021 that she had been left ‘permanently deformed’ following rare side effect to a cosmetic procedure.
The iconic model, 59, graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar’s May 2025 Beauty issue, and in an interview with the publication, shared how she’s changed her approach to her appearance, following a double mastectomy in 2018.
Linda admitted that she ‘still doesn’t look in the mirror’ after a fat-freezing procedure back in 2016 left her ‘permanently deformed.’
She explained: ‘I have to go through therapy to like what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still don’t look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see myself because I didn’t love myself or like myself.’
Breaking down in tears, she added: ‘I really think beauty is something you earn. I think of my grandmothers’ faces and what the war did to them, the toll it took on them … just wearing their hardships. They wore it, and they were so gorgeous. It had nothing to do with perfection or youth.’
Evangelista previously revealed in 2021 that she decided to retreat from the public eye after she developed a rare reaction to a cosmetic procedure in 2016.
Linda Evangelista has revealed she still needs therapy to ‘see what she looks like in the mirror’ after being left ‘permanently deformed’ following rare side effect to a cosmetic procedure
Health: The model suffered from a rare reaction to the procedure known as CoolSculpting, which was designed to decrease her fat cells, but instead, made them become enlarged
Gracing the cover of Harper’s Bazaar’s May 2025 Beauty issue, Linda admitted that she ‘still doesn’t look in the mirror’ after the ‘botched’ procedure
The cryolipolysis procedure, called CoolSculpting, was designed to decrease fat cells, but instead, it made her cells become enlarged. She said she soon began developing ‘bulges’ all over her body, which made her worry that she was losing her mind.
‘To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers’ careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,’ she wrote at the time.
‘It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media described, ‘unrecognizable.”
During the Harper’s Bazaar interview, Linda also revealed that she’s ‘fine’ with her appearance now after she quietly underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnsed with breast cancer in 2018.
She said: ‘My double mastectomy, I’m fine with it. I did put in very small implants. What they took out, I put in, cc-wise.
‘I’ve had all those lung surgeries, oh my God, and my keloids and all the chest-tube scars and my C-section scar. There were a lot of surgeries. I’m cool. I’m fine with those. I won. I’m here. I won.’
She added that in the wake of her ordeal, she’s become more at-peace with the prospect of ageing, saying: ‘I don’t care how I age. I just want to age. It doesn’t have to be gracefully. I really, really, really don’t want to die.
‘I have still so much to do. I’m finally getting comfortable with myself and with everything, and now I want to enjoy it.’
She said: ‘I have to go through therapy to like what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still don’t look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see myself because I didn’t love myself or like myself’
Breaking down in tears, she added: ‘I really think beauty is something you earn. I think of my grandmothers’ faces and what the war did to them, the toll it took on them’
During the Harper’s Bazaar interview, Linda also revealed that she’s ‘fine’ with her appearance now after she quietly underwent a double mastectomy in 2018
She said: ‘My double mastectomy, I’m fine with it. I did put in very small implants. What they took out, I put in, cc-wise’
Linda added: ‘There were a lot of surgeries. I’m cool. I’m fine with those. I won. I’m here. I won’
She added that in the wake of her ordeal, she’s become more at-peace with the prospect of ageing, saying: ‘I don’t care how I age. I just want to age. It doesn’t have to be gracefully’
Linda went onto add: ‘I have still so much to do. I’m finally getting comfortable with myself and with everything, and now I want to enjoy it’
Read the full interview in Harper’s BAZAAR’s May 2025 Beauty issue, on newsstands May 6 and on HarpersBazaar.com
Linda also shared her regret over her famous ‘I won’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day’ comment saying: ‘There’s different ways of saying ”I value myself, and I command this for my services because I’m worth it” than the way I said it.’
In an interview with WSJ Magazine, the supermodel spoke out about her December 2018 diagnosis that led to her having a bilateral mastectomy before she found another lump in her chest last year.
‘The margins were not good, and due to other health factors, without hesitation, because I wanted to put everything behind me and not to have to deal with this, I opted for a bilateral mastectomy…’
‘Thinking I was good and set for life. Breast cancer was not going to kill me,’ she said.
‘But unfortunately she had another cancer scare in July last year after discovering a lump in her chest. The supermodel recalled that her oncologist was ”unimpressed,” but she went ahead with an MRI.
What was found during the MRI prompted her doctor to do a biopsy, it turned out she had cancer in her pectoral muscle.
At the time, Evangelista said she told her doctor, ‘Dig a hole in my chest. I don’t want it to look pretty. I want you to excavate. I want to see a hole in my chest when you’re done. Do you understand me? I’m not dying from this.’
Since then she was told by doctors that her prognosis was good, which led her to question why it wasn’t ‘great’ and being informed: ‘Well, once it’s come back, there’s a chance.’
Evangelista said she had ‘a horrible oncotype score,’ which is a number that predicts the likelihood of the cancer coming back. ‘I know I have one foot in the grave, but I’m totally in celebration mode,’ she added.
The supermodel said ‘only a handful of people knew’ about her cancer ordeal. It’s unclear if she had a breast reconstruction after her bilateral mastectomy.
Read the full interview in Harper’s BAZAAR’s May 2025 Beauty issue, on newsstands May 6 and on HarpersBazaar.com.
